This is a picture of a back brace Nelson had been wearing at work at Stewarts Marketplace where he worked for several years as a teenager. But according to my knowlege he didn't started wearing this brace until March or April of 2010. During that January through spring he would come home from work and say, "my back is bad and I need to have back surgery." I would say, "Nelson you are too young I don't think they would do it." "I know people who have had back surgery and it didn't even help." He had previously been seen by another Dr. a year or two before and had an x-ray of his back. He had done physical therapy exercises at the hospital with a physical therapist and at home (the physical therapist gave him exercises) to do at home. It helped for a while, but then he said it wasn't feeling like it was helping. After that he went to a choirpracter for several months which also seemed to help for a while, but then he said that wasn't helping any. But in April I tried to find someone to go to in Salt Lake, but I could never seem to get through. I was deeply concerned about it. Finally I made an appointment for him to see Dr. Mark Mason (in Roosevelt, Utah). Dr. Mason didn't seem very kind. He said, "Do you know how many people in this country have back pain"? He told Nelson he just need to learn to manage his pain. He told him to take stronger anti-inflamatories like ibuprofen, etc.. When we left his office that day Nelson said, "I don't want to become a drug addict". Dr. Mason actually had an x-ray done on that visit, and he said Nelson still had a little growing to do. Nelson had previously had one done when he was doing physical therapy with the hospital. Dr. Mason also said, " don't take him to all these Drs. trying to figure this out, because I have known people who have, who have spent a lot of money and don't know any more than they did before."
The problem was going on, and maybe a month later or less I made an appointment with Dr. Staker a pediatriction in Roosevelt for a second opinion.
Dr. Staker felt like it was because Nelson's shoulders hunched forward. There is actually a name for that condition, but I don't recall what it is. He told Nelson he needed to work on holding his shoulders back. He was very sympathetic, and he said, "I know that's easy for me to say." But when we got through with that visit Nelson said, "I liked him." He eventually became our stake president after Nelson died. Anyway Nelson was trying to work on that after that Dr. visit. He did this thing at work where he put two belts on his shoulders and crossed them, so there was an x on his back. I am not sure where he came up with that. He also wore the back brace.